Ryan S. Helms
'Ryan Stanley. Helms '''is the lead detective surrounding a case of murders and the constant appearance of organized crime in the heart of ''Nueva Vistas. He later dons the identity of Scorcher, a vigilante hell bent on restoring order to Nueva Vistas blinded by his passions of vengeance. Profile Physical Appearance Ryan Helms was a figure to stand out in the 1930s. His sense of fashion and the way he carried himself in his later years of life were determining factors as to why he was seen so strange to others in law enforcement and in some cases society itself. Ryan was considered to be a handsome man during the time. Due to the weather and beaming sunlight of California/Nevada, Ryan had a lightly tanned complexion. His face was chiseled, wore what is considered to be a 5 o' clock stubble, decently bushy eye brows, light grayish-blue eyes, and dark brown hair. During his earlier stages in the LAPD and some time in Nevada, Ryan fashioned his hairstyle with what is known as a brush cut fade which was popular among military raised men. In his later years, Ryan grew his hair longer than what was allowed for law enforcement and society, going for a more shaggy mid-length type of hairstyle. Finally, Ryan stood 5'11" (1.80 m) and weighed 163 lbs with an athletic build. Attire Before being apart of the LAPD/NVPD and adopting their uniform styles into his fashion sense, Ronald ensured his son's wealth was visible in his dress sense. During his adolescent years, Ryan adopted many suits of deep blues and whites with blacks to accent the clothing he would wear. A popular suit of his was a navy blue blazer with black accents, a white short-sleeve bush shirt, a navy blue flat cap, black tall pants, and black and blue two-tone oxford shoes. As he got older his fashion sense became darker. To suit his dedication to justice, deep blues and blacks would become primary colors for Ryan's fashion sense. In his time as a detective in Nueva Vistas, his plain clothes attire would be that of a black vest and tie, a navy blue bush shirt (sleeves usually rolled up at the elbow to accommodate for the hot weather in Nevada), black slacks, a black wide brimmed fedora with a navy blue bow-tie, and his old two-tone oxford shoes. As the Scorcher, his outfit is changed measurably. Ryan dons a black bush shirt with a bullet proof vest underneath and shoulder holsters, black elbow and knee pads, dark leather driving gloves, grey WWI styled black combat trousers, and laced black combat boots that reached up to his lower shins. To cover his face, Ryan wore a fully clothed executioner's mask with combat goggles covering his eye holes. Personality Through out his life, Ryan has had a reputation that never exactly correlated with his actual personality. In youth, Ryan was considered to be a spoiled young man. Any little thing he could've wanted, he had. He was given an easy path for most of his life and so it gave him a narcissistic and needy outlook on the world for much of his youth. This would come to change slightly once his father was recruited into the Great War. Ryan was only six and began to learn practical home economics from his mother, much to his father's later dismay. As an adolescent, Ryan had a very flirtatious attitude and charismatic demeanor. Traits that would never change for Ryan was his incredible devotion to those who have served him well. Ryan always repays any of his comrades with great care and consideration. As an adolescent, he spent much of his time trying to resolve issues his friends would have in their lives. He was a reputable mediator in his circle of friends. This would remain true to Ryan with those he is close to like his fiancé Janice and to his late friend Sean Walsh. As he grew older, Ryan deeply admired his father for his success in the Great War and hoped to one day become the same man he was in his time. Because of this, Ryan had developed traits taken after his father. He became very speculative, enthusiastic, and had a strong moral code. In many cases, Ryan's thirst for justice and equality of life was stronger than that of his fathers. He had a very different outlook on race and social class that was seen as progressive when compared to his more "set in their ways" parents. Ryan had a deep love for the arts and music, frequently he would use his earnings from the LAPD to go across the city visiting many art museums, parks, and musical performances. Although Ryan had loved the performing arts, he never decided to learn any instruments or draw; rather he was quite content as a fan of the arts. It was his love of the arts to begin with why he and his future fiancé had grown so close. One of Ryan's biggest weaknesses was his indecisiveness. Ryan constantly struggled with whether or not he wanted to live up to his father's company as its CEO or to do his own thing and pursue a life of his own. His poor decision making would later end up with him detaching himself from Helms & Steel almost entirely, only to be scolded by Janice in an effort to have him rethink his life choices. During his time as an officer of the law, Ryan had developed a no nonsense attitude with handling criminals. While he was well versed in tolerance due to how many martial arts classes Ryan was forced to take under his father's tutelage, Ryan's impulsive personality never seemed to learn much from these classes. Ryan had a tendency of being vindictive, competitive, and even eager to fight in his youth and it was something he never necessarily grew out of. Combined with his no nonsense pursuit of justice, Ryan was an officer feared across his precinct and local beat. He would torture criminals to find evidence, injure his foes to crippling statuses, and in worse cases result in outright manslaughter. It was because of his harsh code why he would be suspended for a time in the force. It is also evident that Ryan can have some degree of control over his overtly aggressive behavior. Examples of this stem from when Ryan learned to meditate as a small solution to his aggressive behavior so that he would perform better as an officer and regain his reputation as a good law enforcer. It was his success in pushing back his aggression that eventually got Ryan moved to Nueva Vistas in Nevada. His aggressive behavior would not entirely fade however. In his later years after losing Janice Black to a sexual assault and later homicide, Ryan became closed off from the world. As prohibition ended, he was commonly found in gentleman's clubs, bars, and musical performances drinking dubonnet cocktails by himself. His severe depression affected his work as all he wanted to do was pursue the case surrounding his fiancé's death in 1937. It was his obsession that drove him down a path of vengeance and hatred of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Biography Familial Heritage & Background Ryan S. Helms was the first and only child born to Ronald Prescott Helms and Jane Stanley Helms on October 19th, 1911 in Los Angeles, California. His family's background was that of English migrants that arrived in the United States in the mid 1800s. Ryan's great grand-parents moved westward toward California during the Gold Rush era. In the west, his family was able to start a small time business in the distribution of arms/guns, originating as a hunting store. The arms company itself later became known as Helms & Steel and was a respected U.S arms dealer through out the mid 1800s to the late 1920s having a resounding stock of almost a million dollars. Ronald Helms and his cousin John Ainsley were the proud heirs to that wealth and helped the company sky rocket in the early 1900s. The ownership of the company would remain to be the Helms' property through out the 1900s, except until 1917 where leadership was handed to John Ainsley, who was the company's CEO. This was because Ronald Helms, who was the company's chairman, enlisted in the Great War. Ronald would later become a recognized soldier and war hero for displaying great bravery in the campaign of Aisne-Marne after terminating German troops and aiding in the capture of Belleau Wood. Ronald would later return to the California on injured release after losing his left eye and falling cripple to a gun shot wound to the knee after being tortured in a German camp sometime during 1918. He would later die to lung cancer, eventually giving up much of Helms & Steels ownership to John Ainsley who was promoted to chairman and his son Ryan. During his remaining eight years on U.S soil, Ronald began to teach Ryan how to shoot/hunt and educate him on business etiquette. John Ainsley would take Ryan on business trips and lessons through out the late 1920s. The Depression Ryan would continue his lessons in entrepreneurship. Fate for Ryan would change when the great depression hit the U.S during the 1930s. Business had begun stagnating as people could no longer afford to purchase their arms legally and prices could not drop because of how expensive guns and weapons had gotten to create. This eventually led to the closing of several stores across the United States. Money never entirely became an issue for Ryan and his family, more-so it was the lack of profit that was giving the business a hard time. Even worse though was his home town of Los Angeles getting increasingly higher criminal activity through out the city as a direct response to prohibition. Law enforcement was critically wounded because of the low pay, hard hours, and high crime made the job nearly impossible. The crimes began bothering Ryan personally after watching loan sharks beat a man in front of his wife and kids while visiting Pershing Square park. A series of other cases of loan shark assaults, muggings, and out right murder with no consequences being handed to those causing the crimes only provoked deep hatred in Ryan's heart for crime. One day, he could bear that hatred no longer after witnessing a near rape of an actress named Janice Black in the back of an alley way. Helms rushed to the scene of the crime, brutally beating and shooting down both suspects. Terrified yet relieved, the young actress thanks Helms for his support. Ryan would later visit the actress more frequently during her shows and the two would chat, sometimes in private. Man in Uniform As the months passed, Ryan would grow a very close bond with Janice Black, to the point where the two would become romantically involved. He appeared at almost every show she would have around Los Angeles and the Bay area. They had a very tightly knit relationship and in some cases, Janice would be Ryan's biggest motivator and counselor. They had massive talks about life and how they would proceed in life with one another. Even when Janice would travel across the United States, Ryan made sure to keep close to her with letters. Janice saw the goodness in the heart of Ryan and tried to convince him to become an officer of the law during the hard times in the 1930s. She would consistently remind him of his heroics on the day they met and that he had great potential as an officer. Originally, Ryan was hesitant but eventually accepted her advice and applied to be an officer in spring of 1933 for the Los Angeles Police Department after he noticed just how dangerous the streets had gotten during the Great Depression. He didn't need the money from the job due to his wealthy background and it would long put away his hesitance on inheriting his father's business. Ryan was an offical officer of the LAPD in 1934 just several months after finishing his academy training. During his time in training, Ryan was trained basic offensive combat skills and criminal take down procedure. He was a respected marksman because of his previous years hunting as a child so the practice he got in the academy only refined his skills. The problem that Ryan had was that he would not tolerate criminals at all. He would often persecute criminals based on his intolerance and would often torture suspects to get answers from them on their crimes. He was the text-book crooked cop trying to clean his city. He would eventually be supsended after shooting a suspect's jaw after cursing his name in refusal to answer a question in relation to murder mystery. This caused a heavy strain on his relationship with Janice and the LAPD. During his suspension he studied police protocol and tried his best to train himself in anger management. After his suspension, Ryan would work hard to regain his reputation as a good officer. He would no longer torture and maim his suspects to gain answers. He was a subpar investigator but he did his job as an officer well. Around 1936, Ryan and Janice repaired much of their relationship as Ryan reveals an engagement ring with plans of marrying her in future. Delighted by this, Janice requests that the two move to Nevada in pursuit of her new acting career. With much reluctance, Ryan would eventually agree and the two would pack their things for Nevada. Dystopia of the West Ryan agreed to move to Nueva Vistas after hearing about how the city was unscathed during the darkest points of the great depression. Business was booming and the city needed new officers to protect the city in its great progress of fighting off the global economical decline of the time. In the span of several months, Ryan was moved to Nueva Vistas' branch of constables. During his time in Nueva Vistas under his title as constable, Ryan had done a major overhaul on his behavior as an officer. He became more dependable, focused, and responsible. He worked completely along the lines of the law and was forgiven for his previous faults as an officer in Los Angeles. He was well regarded as a capable officer, his efforts in the police force of Nueva Vista ended up with his promotion to detective in 1937 after solving a case involving three bank robbers. Category:Characters Category:Major Characters Category:Police Officers Category:Protagonists